Re: the luggage tags, we fly in a day early and never put them on until the morning of the cruise.

What I do before then, is put a luggage tag on (or use the one already on the luggage) my bag that has the hotel name and address and date, and the ship's name, location and sailing date on one side and our home address on the other side. I just turn it around before we disembark.

My DH has done the back surgery thing, and you'll be glad you did it afterwards. Okay, a few months afterwards, but... !